Captain America is one of the most iconic and celebrated heroes in Marvel history, with his debut occurring 84 years ago. Since then, he has become a poster child of the company. His movies have been a cut above the rest until Steve Rogers/Captain America’s death after “Avengers: Endgame.” Chris Evans, the actor for Steve, portrayed the role astonishingly well, fleshing out the character realistically despite his fantastical powers. The role of Captain America was passed from Steve to Sam Wilson, played by Anthony Mackie, who fought as the Falcon in the previous movies.

“Captain America: Brave New World,” released on Feb.14, 2025, takes place after this change in identity, which is a large part of both the plot and the character development of Sam. The series “The Falcon and the Winter Soldier” dives into the pressures and issues of this shift, which bleeds heavily into this movie. Although most now accept Sam as Captain America, Sam obviously still struggles with accepting himself in the role.

The plot of the newest sequel, “Captain America: Brave New World,” occurs directly following the American presidential election, which resulted in Thaddeus “Thunderbolt” Ross, played by Harrison Ford, securing the presidency. Thaddeus is a hot-headed politician who was previously a senator. Thaddeus was decidedly disliked by Sam and Isaiah Bradley, an African-American super soldier from WWII who was a prominent figure in the show, “The Falcon and the Winter Soldier,” a precursor to “Captain America: Brave New World.” Isaiah is played by Carl Lumby. Because Captain America works for the U.S. government, Sam is forced to confront the difficult choice of following his gut or continuing to take orders from the capricious leader. He attempts to act civilly, accepting an invitation to the White House, but his decision to bring Isaiah with him establishes the main conflict.

Mackie does well portraying this, although many of the scenes showing this are ruined by over-the-top or poor CGI. Sam as Captain America has potential, as he did well. The story of him fulfilling the pressure-filled role would be an interesting topic, especially if he became as influential as Steve’s Captain America did. Unlike Sam, Jaoquin Torres, played by Danny Ramirez, starts, excited to fill his role as the Falcon. Jaoquin is an energetic United States Air Force officer who befriends Sam in “The Falcon and the Winter Soldier” and takes the mantle as Falcon in “Captain America: Brave New World.” Ramirez does well in this role, showing the excitement Jaoquin feels in the moment and ends the movie with a heartfelt message about pressure.

However, the movie was rather bland and seemed to have a much lower budget than it actually did. One of the most noticeable things throughout the film was the sound effects, which sounded like they were taken off a royalty-free website. Many sound effects were used multiple times for very different effects, making the scene seem repetitive and out of place.Contrastly, the soundtrack was amazing and may have been the best part of the movie. The score wasn’t bad; the compositions added the proper emotions to most of the scenes, but the songs other authors wrote added the extra “oomph,” and the rest of the film was missing. This, however, contrasted these songs to the large missing pieces rather than raising the overall experience, as the difference between the quality of the songs and the rest of the film was astonishing.

One noteable song is “Get It Done” by Blackway, an alternative and rap song that draws attention to his ability to produce other great songs besides his famous “What’s Up Danger” from “Spiderman: Into The Spider-Verse.” “i” by Kendrick Lamar was another great addition to the movie, showing a more “hoppy” side of Lamar, with a pop-rap mix in the song, compared to his typical rap. “Mr. Blue” by The Fleetwoods was additionally an iconic song from the film, which was used as a significant part of the plot as it was played repeatedly by the main villain. However, the severity of the plot was too much, as the song became overplayed by the end of the movie.

“Captain America: Brave New World” is a disappointing continuation of the Captain America series. The movie follows such an essential piece to Marvel’s existence and success, and it’s failure to match the energy of the previous films doesn’t elicit an optimistic forecast of future Marvel movies.